Theme :: Minority Groups and the Authorities

The films in this session discuss the effects of the power imbalance between citizens and the authorities.

Rainy Days

By Rajan Paramesran
13mins, 2006

This film is dramatisation of a legal saga. In 1973, a rubber tapper who was guaranteed a minimum of 24 days pay by the law, was short-changed by 7 days by his employer. What seemed like a clear-cut case took twenty years before a final verdict was delivered for a paltry sum of RM22.40(about £5). The film conveys how justice that is delayed is justice denied.

The Invisible Children

By Hariati Azizan
21mins, 2006

In the fringes of Malaysian society, nine thousand refugee children grow up with no rights. This film hastens the viewer's appreciation of what 'basic human rights' are and why entitlement is necessary. The lack of human rights law is a denial of responsibility by the authorities, leaving ordinary citizens to provide for the refugee children what the rest of society see as public service such as access to education, protection from violence or recourse to justice.

Kopi O Khau Kurang Manis Sikit (Black Coffee, not too sweet)

By Andrew Sia
30mins, 2006

Bitter ‘Kopi-O’(black coffee) is how the film-maker describes the Malaysian Police force for their brutality and practice of demanding ‘coffee money’ as bribes. This film questions the purpose of the institution that has turned from a protector of the people to a menace to society. Incidents of torture and deaths occur behind locked cells, suspects made to perform naked ear-squats, drug evidence that go missing and the use of the police by political leaders are dealt with by this film, grooved with hip-hop rapping and Bollywood love songs.